Consumer debt increased $17.9 billion from May to June as an American Credit Card crunch brought on by the Federal Reserve rate rise drove a sharp gain in outstanding American Credit cards for payments like car loans and house loans.

The average American credit card charge is a 20.53% interest rate

During the second quarter, American credit card balances hit up by $45 billion, or almost 4.6%, to surpass $1.03 trillion, according to the Quarterly Report on Household Debt and American Credit Card.

American credit card debt and auto loan balances assisted household debt levels up 1%, to $17.06 trillion for the quarter. The household American credit card debt spiked by $2.9 trillion before the pandemic.

American Credit card balances have risen for five quarters, increasing at some of the largest rates in two decades.

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“Inopportunely, it’s only going to go up from here,” said Matt Schulz, American credit card analyst for LendingTree

Matt Schulz, an American credit card analyst, said that driving inflation and higher interest rates show how expensive life is in 2023.

The transition rates into early delinquency for American credit cards, auto loans, and house loans upsurged for the quarter. New house loan delinquency rates remain below what was seen pre-pandemic, and the moving averages for auto and American credit card delinquencies are the highest since the first quarter of 2018 and 2012.

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